The Answer Staff Writer

It’s not always easy to leave your past behind you.  As Pastor Eddie Neves will attest, the streets beckon you back long after you’ve given your life to Christ.  If your road to redemption has included prison, theft, drug peddling and abuse, gangs, pimping, murder and more, God may grant you second (third or fourth) chances, but society is loathe to follow suit.

Having gone down the “wrong path” too many times, Neves said he was called to start a ministry that gets - and keeps - men off the streets.  A former career criminal who spent more than sixteen years in and out of prison, Neves completely surrendered his life to Christ just a few years ago and is now helping some of Vegas’ marginalized live out the truth he learned the hard way: “You can’t get away from God.”

Having been shot, stabbed, beaten and broken many times over, Neves has a tough and tattooed exterior that belies his heart for the dozen men in his charge at the “spiritual group home” he launched earlier this year.  Neves chokes back tears as he shares his love and dedication for the men he disciples, all of which have incredible histories.  One, as Neves tells it, was addicted to meth just a few months earlier.  Others were infamous drug dealers.  Another suffered burns over the majority of his body and had given up.  Several of the men, like Neves, have been in and out of prison and have tried many times to turn their lives around and failed.  But that, Neves said, was before God called.

In the ministry house, the men wake up at 6:00am, have fellowship and Bible study, spend the day doing hard labor at community projects and are committed to sober and respectful living.  This, as Neves explains, is not because of rules, but because of choice.  With most of the men just a few months, or even just a few days, from life on the streets, it is clear that they have gladly traded their lives of sin for lives of service.  Neves said that the ministry house does not embrace a reform-based approach like so many of the men have experienced through prison, but rather a grace-based one.  “I don’t change them,” Neves proclaims, “God changes them.”

As the men battle the regrets of their pasts, the people from their “old life” who try to draw them back in, the harsh realities of new sobriety, the desire to make up for lost time and so much more, Neves said he counsels them to “wait on God” and keep asking God what He wants.  As these practices settle in, the men are employed by churches and community organizations to do good works in exchange for food, ministry-directed stipends and a sense of purpose.  They sleep on donated couches and mattresses, seldom have a moment to themselves and don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  Still, as Neves said and is apparent in spending time with any of the men, what they have now is a “gift.” Ask any one of them how they are doing today and they will answer without hesitation, “I am blessed.”

Through several turns of circumstance that he now sees as God handiwork, Neves came to Vegas with his wife Toni nearly a year ago and was drawn to the work being started by Casa de Luz/Works of My Father.  Their individual, discipleship approach to saving the lost in Vegas’ “Naked City” appealed to Neves who himself needed personal ministry to make a real change in life.  As God used Casa to save the lost, Neves said, he would “grieve” for the men who would return to the streets and struggle with the ongoing temptations there.  Through months of daily volunteering and preparing to eventually take up residence at Casa, along with being ordained as a pastor, Neves said God was placing a burden for the community’s men on his heart.

When looking at it through “a man’s perspective,” Neves recounts that he had no idea how to provide housing for the men (many of which slept under bridges at night) without regular income or how to provide for their ongoing spiritual needs.  Looking at it from God’s perspective, though, Neves knew if he were faithful then God would be faithful.  A low-cost apartment became available, followed by a house, and then some earned money to turn on the electricity, and so on.  In just a few months time, Neves’ call has become a non profit organization working under the designation of a “spiritual group.”  Enough work and enough money have materialized to keep things going, said Neves, and he prays daily for God’s provision for the days ahead.  “There is never an excess, but there always seems to be enough,” he added.

As the men’s ministry evolves, it has captured the attention of churches such as Cornerstone and Canyon Ridge which utilize the men for outreach projects.  The ministry has also gotten the attention of Pastor Ray Reeder who has featured three of the ministry’s men, as well as Neves, on his Riding for Jesus radio show on KKVV 1060 AM. 

It wasn’t that long ago Neves could never have imagined he’d be a pastor, let alone the leader of a God-glorifying men’s ministry.  Through terms in San Quentin, protective custody from gangs he’d abandoned in Pelican Bay, death threats and assassination attempts, unimaginable trials and more, Neves held the words of Hebrews 13:5 close to his heart: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” As he backslid and suffered, Neves said he always knew God had something more for him to do.  Today, having fully submitted to God’s plan for his life, Neves sees that his purpose is to make sure others who have been redeemed will not be forsaken.

Pastor Eddie Neves can be reached at (702) 472-5961.